by Melissa Kelly | Apr 13, 2025 | Lent, Megan Ramer, Narrative Lectionary - Year 3, Sermons
Prepare, Process, Weep Not a single palm frond or “Hosanna” in this year’s Palm Sunday reading. Luke’s version of Jesus’ procession toward and into Jerusalem instead records people throwing their coats on the ground. Rather than simply reaching for a fallen branch,...
by Melissa Kelly | Mar 30, 2025 | Lent, Megan Ramer, Sermons
The Crevasse is Real This Lukan fable has a pretty clear message: Wealth creates an impassable crevasse between humans. Wealth is only one of the many things that can create impassable crevasses between people; so too can race and religion and immigration status, to...
by Melissa Kelly | Mar 16, 2025 | Megan Ramer, Narrative Lectionary - Year 3, Sermons
Mother Hen Jesus Jesus desires our ingathering, and we so often are not willing. Jesus goes belly up, like a fierce yet vulnerable mother hen in the presence of a fox, ready to take us under the shelter of her wings. Are we willing? And what might we learn from Jesus...
by Melissa Kelly | Mar 9, 2025 | Megan Ramer, Narrative Lectionary - Year 3, Sermons
Guts, Listening, and Urgency One familiar story which contains a familiar parable flows into another familiar story. Is there anything at all new to say about the Samaritan that’s called “good” or the Mary and Martha sisterly tiff? Unclear. But given our deep dive...
by Melissa Kelly | Feb 16, 2025 | Megan Ramer, Narrative Lectionary - Year 3, Sermons
Orthopraxy and a Faith That Sues the President Fetus John the Baptist knew exactly who Jesus was, according to Luke. Adult John the Baptist sends emissaries to ask Jesus who he is. Jesus does not answer John’s question, but rather instructs the question-askers to...
by Melissa Kelly | Feb 9, 2025 | Megan Ramer, Narrative Lectionary - Year 3, Sermons
A Gut Impulse for Compassion Jesus sees a woman and is moved with compassion to respond. But what about all the other women, humans, creatures, who also needed his compassionate response??? And what about the root causes of her suffering – Shouldn’t he have...
